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NAVIGATION AND GUIDANCE OF AN AUTONOMOUS SURFACE
VEHICLE
by
Arvind Antonio de Menezes Pereira
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE VITERBI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF SCIENCE
(ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING)
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Arvind Antonio de Menezes Pereira

This thesis describes the work done in transforming a small boat with two aft thrusters and a single rudder into an Autonomous Surface Vehicle which is capable of operation in diverse marine environments such as lakes, rivers, marinas and harbors. The sensors utilized are a Global Positioning System, a 3 degree of freedom Inertial Measurement Unit consisting of gyroscopes, accelerometers and an integrated magnetometer compass. The guidance system is aided by a stereo vision system that uses stereo disparities to make inferences about obstacles. The boat is currently being used to collect data used by a team of researchers, to study the effect of harmful algal blooms. After a brief description of the system design, we discuss the design and implementation of the heading autopilot, line of sight guidance system and the stereo vision-based obstacle avoidance system.

NAVIGATION AND GUIDANCE OF AN AUTONOMOUS SURFACE
VEHICLE
by
Arvind Antonio de Menezes Pereira
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE VITERBI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF SCIENCE
(ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING)
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Arvind Antonio de Menezes Pereira